


five voicemails (one hundred and twenty-one missed calls)

by paopuleaf



Series: voicemails to/from ascension [1]
Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Light Angst, Other, Post S10 - Ascension, because what else can you do, phone calls to people you know wont pick up but you keep hoping anyway, you know?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paopuleaf/pseuds/paopuleaf
Summary: on the day of the godkilling, on the day of the season 10 finals, on the day of ascension -luis' line went dead.tot clark keeps calling.
Relationships: Luis Acevedo/Tot Clark
Series: voicemails to/from ascension [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057883
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	five voicemails (one hundred and twenty-one missed calls)

**Author's Note:**

> the zalgo text at the end says "ii. day 50."

?.

luis’ voice sounds staticky, through the phone - it has since the crabs were struck down by the shelled one, and if tot closes his eyes, he can see the flickering of their form as they lean against the fence. “i think- they’re doing it! they’re- holy  _ shit, _ ” luis murmurs, awe clear in their voice. 

“they did it,” tot says, and a single glance up towards the tv confirms it - the shelled one, overtaken by the squid. jaylen. the coin. he’s not listening to the radio - luis is still narrating it all, quiet, the sound of other crabs talking amongst themselves in the background. “you doing okay, after that?”

silence. the static is gone.

tot looks up towards the tv, and - 

the phone beeps in his hand, line dead. 

the crabs are gone.

-

i. _day 02_

“... hey.” 

“first day of the season pitching, today. black hole’s still there from when your teammate fucked up the sun - the first one - and the moon. did you ever get to see the second sun?” tot pauses for a moment, leans back against the wall in the empty instrument storage. a place for some quiet - the idea of someone walking in feels… wrong.

“i think that before all this, it’s one of those things you’d take as an omen, or something. it’s the usual, now- messed up. none of this happened before, you know? years and years, or whatever.”

luis got it. they weren’t around as long as him - but they  _ got  _ it, and it was easier to make things click, around them. “mike’s gone again- we’re still defying the gods, just… a new set of them. we don’t know how, yet, but we’ll get there. you’re- hey, you got to fulfill that, huh? fought the shelled one for a minute. ‘sometimes defying the gods is just standing there,’” he quotes again. “the crabs sure just stood there, didn’t they?” 

the joke falls a little flat, in the silence. tot sighs, moves to hang up. “... love you. see you soon.”

_ beep. _

-

iii. _day 51_

“it’s been a little bit,” tot begins, stops. “i’ve been calling every day, just- i don’t know what to say. figured i’d check in now, though. saw you guys got a win up there, through the telescope- you still fighting gods up there? was it a fluke?

“bet you got a single,” and there’s a grin, small, “maybe stole a base or two. i’ve still got the video of best chasing you around on my phone. can’t steal it and delete while you’re up in the sky.” he sits on one of the speakers. one of these days he should leave a voicemail with the rest of the team there, too. 

luis would appreciate it, wherever they are.

“... pitched a shutout today, against the fridays. that’s where mcdaniel and dreamy and bullock are, if you didn’t know- they’re doing alright. from what i can tell, anyway. bullock pitched. still got his ass. no going easy on ‘em, right? mcdaniel hit a single, though, the crowd went  _ wild.  _ she’s as good as ever. it was a close game, zero to one, too.

“pitching a good game is hard in this weather.” tot snorts, thinks about all the wins eaten up by black hole. “wherever you are, at least you aren’t at risk of winning  _ and  _ losing the game, all in one go. i hope. hey, maybe that’s why your score’s so messed up. you gotta stop being so good, luis, c’mon-”

“tot! we’re leaving!” malik calls from outside, knocking on the door to the storage loudly as if tot couldn’t  _ already  _ hear him.

either way, he fumbles, the phone nearly dropping. “sorry- gotta go. love you, see you soon!”   
  


_ beep. _

-

iv. _day 113_

the team’s crowded into some karaoke place, tot pressed up against the wall in a booth as pitching machine somehow goes  _ hard  _ on singing “plastic love.” a ‘we’re getting into finals’ celebration of sorts - really, they just needed a break, and they had a couple hours before they had to go against the sunbeams, anyway.

“you guys wanna call luis?” the ask gets a couple looks of confusion, some from just the subject, some from the noise, but he sets his phone down on the table and hits the call button anyway. “i leave voicemails, sometimes- figured they’d appreciate one from some of you guys.”

malik scrambles forward, leaning halfway over the phone only for greer to gently shove him, the rest of the team who were there when luis was around crowding around them both. tot leans back - he can say his piece, afterwards - and lets the voices overlap. they’ll be able to puzzle it out, later. more about the gesture, anyway.

and it does - quiet down, that is. he takes his phone back when malik pushes it to him, and holds it up to his ear, tucking himself as far away from the  _ loud  _ of the bar. “we got confirmed for finals- guess you probably heard it from them, first. dunno if we’ll win- the beams are a force to be reckoned with, but then again, so are we. maybe if we get the cup we’ll get to fight, i dunno, the coin, or something.”

a song finishes. another one starts. tot opens his mouth - closes - opens. a loss for words, or something like it. “i... the season’s nearly over. hope you come back soon- try to get a signal to watch us, from wherever you are. i’ll do my best. ‘m sure you will, too.

“... love you. see you soon.”

he hangs up with one final call of "keep batting it up in heaven, luis!" from malik.

_ beep. _

-

v. _day 120_

“we didn’t get the championship.”

tot’s in his apartment - it’s late, way later than he’d usually be up, but  _ god,  _ was he hoping that luis might actually pick up this time. (and, of course, like the last one-hundred and nineteen times, they didn’t.) he almost hangs up. what’s there to say? 

a lot, on second thought. a lot of messy, tangled up feelings, one-hundred nineteen  _ see you soons  _ that never came to fruition, a hundred more  _ i miss yous  _ that went unsaid, because there was no one to hear them. silence, for a long moment.

“i miss you,” he says, simple. “love you. i’ll- see you soon?” it sounds like a question, this time. no answer comes.

“i’ll see you soon,” he repeats. he will. they’ve known each other for decades - what’s a year? it can’t be that long. it can’t be that hard. (and yet / and yet / and yet -)

_ beep. _

-

i̶̮͌̂ͅi̴̲͕̾̇.̴̜͔̅ ̴̡̦͛d̴̬̭́á̷̧y̴̠̤̔ ̷̖̎5̶̡̼͝0̶͕͛͆

“hey!” 

“i, uh, don’t know if you’ll get this! or if there’s any reception up here at all, oops. but my projectors seem to be working fine, so maybe? here’s to hoping!”

“we won a game today, you know! fighting gods is- well, it’s sure  _ going! _ we’re having a time. it’ll turn out fine, in the end- you know how it is. if anybody can do it, it’s the crabs. sorry, garages. taking your title.” 

“you guys should join us up here! it’d be fun. i miss you. there’s a couple new people, from the fridays, but i miss dreamy, and you, and i-”

…

“well-! it’s- nothing, really. we ascended! i... hope everything’s okay down there, with tot fox’s fucking-  _ black hole _ , and all. and the boss- everything. we get bits and pieces, up here, but not much.”

“i- good luck, okay? i know you can do it. stand on the mound for a couple minutes again, if you have to,” and luis’ voice breaks, a little bit, slipping into static, teasing but so, so quiet, “declan n’ the rest of the ‘fighters are still holding the ladder for us,  _ i’ll  _ come back down if i have to.”

“i- love you, ‘kay? i’ll... see you soon. stay safe!”

_ beep. _

**Author's Note:**

> the fact that luis ascended and left their bf behind was brought up earlier today in the crabitat and i got _incredibly_ sad about it, so i decided to take a shot at writing clark and go for this . im very sad about this . keep thotting it up in ascension, crabs


End file.
